Group Procurement Director - Food Manufacturing

Description:

A rare Group-level procurement leadership role with the scale, Board exposure and mandate to shape a major UK food manufacturing business.

Group Procurement Director - Food Manufacturing

Location: Midlands
Working pattern: Regular presence required, typically 2-3 days per week at a Midlands office, with flexibility and limited wider site travel
Package: Highly competitive executive package + car allowance + bonus opportunity + benefits
Permanent

The Opportunity

We're supporting a major UK food manufacturing group with the appointment of a Group Procurement Director.

This is a confidential senior leadership search for an experienced procurement leader who can take ownership of a significant Group-wide spend profile across ingredients, packaging, indirect goods and services, and capital expenditure.

The business operates through a multi-site model, so this is not just about setting central strategy. It is about influencing senior stakeholders, partnering with individual businesses, strengthening supplier relationships and making sure procurement is genuinely helping the Group improve competitiveness, resilience and margin performance.

You'll work closely with the Group Board and senior leadership teams, leading the procurement function through its next phase and shaping how the service should evolve for the future.

Key Responsibilities

You'll be responsible for setting and delivering the Group procurement strategy across a complex food manufacturing environment.

Key areas of focus will include:

Leading and developing a sizeable procurement function across multiple category areas
Shaping the future procurement operating model, including structure, capability and succession
Building effective category strategies across direct materials, packaging, indirects and capex
Partnering with senior stakeholders across the Group to align procurement with business priorities
Leading strategic supplier relationships, major negotiations and commercial agreements
Using market insight, cost drivers and supply chain intelligence to identify risk and opportunity
Improving procurement reporting, governance, ways of working and overall functional effectiveness

What We're Looking For

This will suit a senior procurement leader with experience operating at scale in a complex food manufacturing environment.

Food procurement experience is highly preferred, particularly where you have worked with ingredients, packaging, supply risk, inflationary pressure and customer-led manufacturing complexity.

You'll need to bring:

Senior procurement leadership experience in a large, complex organisation
Strong strategic sourcing, category management, negotiation and supplier management capability
Experience influencing at Board, Executive or senior leadership level
A track record of leading teams, building capability and developing successors
The judgement to balance Group strategy with the realities of site-level operational needs
Strong commercial, financial and market insight
A calm, credible and collaborative leadership styleThis is not a role for someone who wants to operate in isolation. The business needs a visible, authentic procurement leader who can build trust, challenge constructively and take people with them.

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to step into a high-impact Group Procurement Director role with genuine scale, senior exposure and strategic influence.

The business is well-established, values-led and operating in a sector where procurement has never been more important. Ingredients, packaging, supplier resilience, inflation, cost competitiveness and margin protection are all central to the Group's future direction.

For the right person, this offers the chance to shape a major procurement function, develop a strong leadership team and make a meaningful contribution to the performance of a leading UK food manufacturing group.

If you're interested in learning more, we'd be happy to have a confidential conversation